Improvement in the manufacture of illuminating-gas from petroleum



WILLIAM C. WREN & GEORGE W. WREN. Improvement in the Manufacture ofIlluminating Gas from Petroleum. No. 120,409. PatentedOct. 31,1871.

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z ea A %1"/W UNITED STATES PATENT GFFIGE.

\VILLIAM (J. VVREN AND GEORGE \V. WEEK, OF BROOKLYN, NEN YORK; SAIDGEORGE \VREr ASSIGNS HlS RIGHT TO \VlIdllAM U. WHEN.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ILLUMINATING-GAS FROM PETROLEUM.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 120,409, dated October31, 1871.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, W'ILLIAM O. VVREN and GEORGE WV. WREN, of the cityof Brooklyn, county of Kings, State of New York, have inventeda new andImproved Method of Generating Illuminating-Gas from (Jrude Petroleum orother liquid hydrocarbons; and we do hereby declare that the followingis a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaecom 'ianying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereonmaking a part of this specification.

The nature of our invention consists in the use of stills for thedistillation of the fluid hydrocarbons, and a retort or superheater thatcomprises within itself a number of retorts or super-heaters, the stillsand superheaters placed in separate furnaces and fires; alsosafety-valves attached to each of the stills, that will prevent thestills from bursting and at the same time condense any vapor that maycome from the same.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to make and use ourinvention, we will now proceed to describe its construction andoperation, reference being had to the annexed drawing, in which- Figure1 is an ordinary furnace. Fig. 2 is the same kind of furnace with thefront removed. Fig. 3 is a furnace holding-retort or superheater.

A is a still; .13, another one; I) the retort or superheater with thelid remover, divided into compartmentslongitudinally; the partitionsIlltlk ing said compartments made on a curve to prevent the partitionsfrom breaking away from the outside shell, or the expansion andcontraction breaking the retort. The partitions must be so shortened andlengthened at each end as to allow the vapors to pass from one divisionto the other continuously. l), a longitudinal section of the samedivided perpendicularly; D a transverse section of same dividedhorizontally. K and K are plugs, with thread cut on them, tapped intothe mouth of the stills, large enough when taken out of the stills toallow the stills to he filled or emptied. As the screw cut on the plugswill not keep in the vapor when the stills are hot unless they (theplugs) are leaded and screwed in very tight, have a flange all aroundthe plug on the side toward the screw, beveled under, as shown at K(grooved will answer the same purpose,) in which put putty, clay, oranything like; then, in screwing down the plug, the elay or putty willmake a tight joint, and the screw-joint need not be very tight. F, atight covered vessel filled with water to the line G, fitted with asiphon, L, put in at the water-line; M, a pipe going from the lastcompartment of the retort 1) into the ves sel F, just below thewater-line G; N, a pipe fitted with the stop-cocks O 0, connecting withthe stills and the first compartment of the retort l). U is an open.vessel, filled with water to the line E. H ll are pipes, withoutstopcocks, leading from each still into the vessel U, said pipes dippinginto the water in the vessel U several inches deeper than the pipe Mdips into the water in the vessel l Having described the apparatus, wewill now show the method of working: in the first place, heat the retortl) to a bright red heat; then fill the stills, while cold, with thematerial to be used; then start a fire gradually under the stills A ll,alternately, allowing one to cool while the other is being used. 11' twostills are not enough to allow sufficient time to cool, add more stills.In the still that is being used, the stop-cook 0 in the pipe N must beopened and the other cock shut; then the product of distillation willpass through the pipe N into the retort l), where it is converted intogas; then it passes through the vessel F, where it leaves any vapor;thence to the gasholder. The use the pipes II II are put to is, if fromany carelessness the stop-cooks O O are left shut at the wrong time, orthere should be any stoppage in the retort or any of the other pipes,the vapor generated in the stills will run over into the vessel C and becondensed by the water therein, while, when the stop-cocks O U are openthe vapor will not pass into the vessel U, because the dip of the pipesH H is greater than the dip of the pipe M.

What we claim as our invention isl. The combination of a retort, dividednto two or more compartments, with a still or stills, to be used se'iarately, alternately, or together with. the retort, each still to bein separate furnaces or fires from the retort, as described.

The combination of the safety-valve or valves and condensing vessel withthe still or stills, as Thepartition oferetortgvith a curveinstead.

described. of it straight line, for the purpose as described.

3. The eombinution ofthe condensing-vessel 0, WILLIAM C. VVREN.

the pipes H the stills A and B, the retort D, and GEORGE W. VVREN.

the condenser F, as described.

4. The plug K, with a combination of a screw Witnesses: and a bevel orgroove on the flange, for the pur- M. B. VVHITTLESEY, pose as described.ORIN CROSS. (66)

